"As we got closer and closer to opening night on Broadway, every TV and radio program, every newspaper and magazine talked about Phantom . And I was the Phantom! Talk about pressure! Hal [Prince} would hold these pep talks during previews. One night he came to us and said, 'There are three major critics in tonight.' I think I had a breakdown right on the spot. But on opening night, suddenly all my tension just vanished. Thre was a great warmth in the theater, and I knew I was where I belonged. On the last night I played him on Broadway, two years after I began in London, I was overcome with emotion. The cast sang 'Happy Trails' and we all cried. I have endless memories of creating and living with this incredible character - too many to recount. But I can tell you, the privilege was all mine."
"What's the appeal of the character? That's the billion dollar question, isn't it? It's the biggest role I've ever done, the one I've been waiting to do all my life. I remember the first time I played him two and a half years ago - I was the understudy. It was electric. I invited everyone I knew to be in the audience and the cast was so supportive. Unlike some other actors who have played him, I think I approached this character as an actor. I try to take whatever it is that I am singing and feel it. Experience it. Find the reason behind it. I find mysekf on this incredible emotional journey everytime the curtain goes up. The beauty of playing him for so long is that I have the luxury of constantly exploring and rediscovering him. I get to know him better every performance. On a lighter note, I have the rare distinction of being the only Phantom whose hair was caught on fire. I was singing my heart out and suddenly I saw the cast gasping in horror. I put my hand to my head and felt flames. So I just started beating my skull madly, which went with the scene anyway, since I was having an emotional fit at Christine and Raoul. I don't think the audience noticed, but everyone was poised backstage with fire extinguishers."
"The Phantom is a very complicated character, and it gives the actor playing him so much to draw from. Besides the obvious things, there are so many emotions and traits that are totally subjective. That's why I think that each actor who's played him has done it differently. To me, his pain is paramount. He has suffered such abuse and rejection, and his not being able to experience and love is a major part of his problem. I never thought I would have the opportunity to play a single role for such a long amount of time - 1,600 times, but who's counting? - But it turned out to be an incredible learning experience. I feel I've grown so much as an actor and as a person. Doing a role for so long challenged me every night to keep it fresh for the audience and to myself. And I found myself constantly digging deeper into his mind to see what made him tick."
“I started as Raoul, and after I’d been in the show for a week, Leila Martin walked up to me and said, ‘So, how long before you’re doing the Phantom?’Six months later, it was astonishing to actually be up in the angel above the stage thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m playing the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway!’ I was rehearsing the role while playing Raoul at night and it got pretty confusing because they have a lot of dialogue together. I have extraordinary memories of the show because that’s where I met my wife, Dodie Pettit. I was rehearsing ‘Masquerade’, and I looked up and saw Dodie, who was in the company and had just had a foot surgery, hobbling across the stage. It was one of those moments of clarity out of The bridges of Madison Country - I told her I thought we were destined to know each other for the rest of our lives. She said, ‘Get away from me, you freak!’ O followed her around for six weeks, and finally we went out. That was nine years ago. We went on the road with the show, and Dodie worked her way up to being a Christine understudy. We got to do the show together on tour about a dozen times.
“I’ve played the Phantom since 1992, first in Seattle and now for four years in San Francisco. Maybe I’m a freak of nature, more monster than man, but I never get bored or tired. There’s never been a day that I wished I was somewhere else. It’s like being thrown into the middle of the deep end of a pool and having someone ask, ‘Do you get bored trying to swin to the edge?’ You don’t - you just totally immerse yourself in the process. One thing I do is give myself a new task on a nightly basis: I work on my consonants, or my movements, or on making my objectives incredibly clear. I still wake up every morning thinking about the show.”
“Playing the role is a very isolating, cloistered experience. you get to the theater before anyone else for makeup, you hardly play with anyone besides Christine and Raoul, and you leave the theater after everyone else has gone. When I started, I thought, ‘Boy, if I can get through six months of this, it will be a trick’ If somebody had said, ‘You’re going to do this for three years - which I did on the road and then on Broadway - I would have said, ‘Not only do I not want to, but I don’t think I can.’ But then it sort of becomes the way life is, and the months turn into years. The reward comes in that it’s a wonderful, wonderful role that captures people’s imaginations. It becomes heady experience to do it - and the money wasn’t bad either! Not to demean myself or anyone else who has played it, but I thhink the true fascination and intrigue come from the character.”
“I played the Phantom in London and Vienna. I think he’s a bitter, brilliant man. But he can be a great bastard! I find him motivated by terrible, profound loneliness. He’s been forced to create his own world and his own rules. He is so vulnerable - the epitome of ugliness and beauty at war with each other, reason and insanity, id and ego - all battling it out. But I never think for one second that he is crazy. I thhink he’s tragically misunderstood.”
“I did Phantom in Toronto. My impression of the character is that he’s a total schizo - in the nicest possible way. Everything was fine until he starts to live out of his fantasy. Being rejected by Christine drives him over the edge, and he turnes to the darker side. Even though his motive was love, I think it’s a form of insanity. He loses control. But in the end, he accepts reality and lets Christine go. It’s that point when the monster turns into man. I think when he disappears, he doesn’t die - he goes off somewhere to start a new life.”